Wednesday, July 29, 2015

Whether you are coming from Connie Babbert's Inkspired Treasures blog or just joining us -- welcome to the July 2015 Control Freaks Blog
Tour! I just returned home from the Stampin' Up! Convention. One of my favorite things to do at Stampin' Up! events is to swap card ideas with other demonstrators. This year, the ONLY swaps I made were for my Control Freaks friends! On this month's tour, we are sharing the cards that we swapped with the each other. I hope that you enjoy the tour and are inspired by what you
see!

Control Freak Stampers at Stampin' Up! Convention 2015

I used the new Birthday Blossoms stamp set for my first card. I love this layout and have used it over and over again with different stamp sets and different color combinations. It is one of the layouts that I featured in my first Pocket Full of Sketches book. (Watch for Volume 2 of my popular card layout book to be released in August!) I really love the way the bright colors (Watermelon Wonder, Crushed Curry, and Cucumber Crush) pop against the black!

My second swap card is one of the cards that I designed for my July Stamp of the Month Club featuring the Watercolor Wings stamp set. Here is the card for the kit:

And here is the one that I created for the Control Freaks swap:

Can you spot the difference? It's subtle. I "stepped up" my swap card a little by using the Fluttering Embossing Folder on the Tangelo Twist cardstock and adding a layer of Basic Black cardstock. I also stamped the butterfly a little differently to incorporate the Hello Honey color in the stamped image.

That's all I have for you today! Here's a sneak peek of the inside of another card from my Stamp of the Month Club kit. I'll be posting a video tutorial for this card later this week, so be sure to come back and visit me again!

In the meantime, continue on the blog tour to check out Dannie Graves at Dannie's Designs and her Control Freaks Convention swaps. Dannie and I were on the same wavelength with card layouts!

It is a Convention tradition for our team to gather on one of the last nights for our Pizza and Swap night. We pool our money and order pizza and gather in the hotel hospitality area. After we eat, we take turns looking through each other's swaps so we can snap pictures of ideas that we didn't get in our own swaps. I looked through hundreds of swaps, but only took pictures of cards that I might CASE. I am often drawn to a card because of the layout or color combination. So here are my Top 5 Favorite Convention Swaps that I snapped at our Pizza & Swap Night. I made sure to take a picture of the back so I could give each demonstrator credit in the photo watermark.

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Tuesday, July 28, 2015

I'm back at home and back to the reality of four kids and a messy house! But I am enjoying looking back at photos from Convention last week and remembering all the fun I had with friends in Salt Lake City! Today, I am sharing pictures from Day 2 (Friday). This year at Convention, everyone had a different color track, so we got to see all the same classes and not have to miss out on anything! There was also some time during our track to explore and Gathering Place.

Everyone loves a good sneak peek and this year, we got to see the August and September Paper Pumpkin kits. I can't share photos because both displays were guarded behind curtains! But let me say they are great kits! If you are not already a subscriber, you can sign up now and get your first two months for 50% off! Learn More

In addition to the Paper Pumpkin booth, there were displays of the new Holiday Catalog product and a "Product Playground" where we had the opportunity to get hands on and try some of it for ourselves. I caught up with my old SAM (Service Account Manager) and friend Terri Allen. She was showing everyone the new Festive Fireplace stamp set and coordinating Hearth & Home Thinlits, which also coordinate with the Happy Scenes stamp set. You can use the thinlits to cut out the fireplace (not shown here) or create a window with a scene in the background. I love how everything works together! Terri said she created these cards that were on display:

During General Session, I won a prize patrol -- a new hostess set from the Holiday Catalog plus the Ornate Tag Topper Punch. Here I am with my Advisory Board sisters Winona and Kay. I turns out that EVERYONE at Convention won a door prize by the end of the event! Woo hoo!

We enjoyed several stamping presentations during General Session. I took LOTS of pictures to remember all of the ideas and tips that were shared. Here is one of my favorite projects demonstrated by Sara Douglass. She created the sparkly striped background by squeezing some Dazzling Details on scrap piece of cardstock and then using a Sponge Dauber to apply it over the Dots & Stripes Mask.

During the morning General Session, they recognized award achievers, anniversaries, and career sales milestones. I was called by name to stand and be recognized for my personal sales last year. If I counted right, I was among the Top 25 U.S. demonstrators in the category of Personal Sales!

I was proud and excited to march with my mom (Susan La Croix), my upline (Kim Peck), and my sideline (Meg Loven) as Grand Vacation Achievers. I can't wait to join the these beautiful ladies on the Mediterranean Cruise next May!

Meg, Kim, me, Mom (Susan)

At the end of the day, we gathered for a group picture with our team. There were almost 30 of us in all! Friday evening we held our annual Swap & Pizza Night. I love this time to relax at the hotel with my friends and chat while we snap pictures of each other's swaps. I'll post some of my favorite ones tomorrow!

Saturday, July 25, 2015

We've had two full days of Convention now, but there was a little hiccup in the timing of my last post, so I'm going to back-track and tell you about Day 1. It was a busy, busy day!

Thursday started with bag pick up and then the exciting reveal of the new 2015 Stampin' Up! Holiday Catalog during the opening General Session. (If you're a demonstrator, you can view it all online right now! And if you're not a demonstrator, maybe you should think about it! Just sayin... Demonstrator Pre-order starts August 4th which means that you can choose new Holiday Catalog products in your Starter Kit! How exciting!
Here are a few of my favorite things from the new catalog that I spied on display:

NEW Witching Decor Project Kit

NEW Season to Season Project Kit

NEW Joyful Season stamp set

NEW Flurry of Wishes stamp set & coordinating punch

After some classes and catching up with a few stamping friends from across the country, we grabbed a quick bite to eat and dressed up for Awards Night. This year, they had a Roaring Twenties theme. I loved seeing everyone decked out in amazing costumes! I wore a new sparkly dress that wasn't 20's era, but I accessorized with some feathers and pearls.

At Awards Night, I was honored to be recognized again this year as one of the United States Top 100 Demonstrators of the Year and I'm excited to attend the Founder's Circle Retreat again in St. George, Utah this fall. Many, many thanks to my team and all of my customers for helping to make this year my best yet!

Me & Mom at the Awards Night After Party

My team, the Ju-bilant Stampers, on Awards Night

Me & Meg Loven, my sideline and fellow Founder's Circle Achiever

I was also recognized for my year of service on the Stampin' Up! Advisory Board. I had been such an honor and privilege to serve on this board as a demonstrator voice to the Corporate Team. (I will post a picture of my Advisory Board sisters soon!)

The After Party was filled with awesome music, dancers, photo ops, and food! There are about 20 pictures I wish I had taken to capture the atmosphere, so you'll have to trust me when I say it was a roaring good time (pun intended)!

Friday, July 24, 2015

I am in Salt Lake City for the Stampin' Up! Convention. Wednesday was my travel day. I arrived after in the afternoon and after getting settled in our room, Mom and I walked down to a grocery store to pick up some food for breakfast for the week. We met some of our team for dinner at Cheesecake Factory. Yum! I couldn't even finish half my dinner before I was full. I forgot to get a picture at dinner of my friends at dinner.

After dinner, we zipped over to the hotel just in time for the "Green Hat Reveal". For 10 years, my upline Kim Peck has gotten bright green hats for our team to wear so that we can easily see each other in the crowd of thousands of demonstrators. Here is a picture of most of us last night.

It's customary to trade cards and small gifts. I felt like I was trick-or-treating as I walked around the room and share my treat with everyone. It was a bag of vanilla almonds with this cute little tag. I forgot to tell everyone that they could use the tag and put it on a card or notecard. So easy! I'll do that when I get home and try to remember to post a picture and share it!

This is my personal blog. The content contained on this blog and in the classes, products, and services that I offer is my sole responsibility as an Independent Stampin' Up! Demonstrator and is not endorsed by Stampin' Up!